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Unlikely hero for Spinners

LOWELL -- His smiling Lowell Spinners teammates kept walking up to Miguel Rodriguez and saluting him for several more minutes after having mobbed him on the field.

Lowell 4, HV 3

Some did so in the dugout as Rodriguez, a catcher, hurriedly stuffed his equipment bag. He was headed to Fenway Park to join his family in watching the Red Sox and Yankees play Sunday night. Rodriguez's dad, Victor, is the Red Sox's assistant hitting coach. His brother Victor Jr. is a Red Sox scout.

Other teammates congratulated Rodriguez inside the Spinners' clubhouse, where the joy of a 4-3 victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades was shared.

Those with walkoff hits are automatically popular with their teammates. But his teammates seemed to especially feel Rodriguez's joy.

He came into this game batting .063, having collected two singles in 32 at-bats, and Rodriguez was in the lineup for only the second time this month.

"We have a couple of guys who are priorities ahead of him, and he doesn't get a lot of chances," said Spinners manager Bruce Crabbe. "But he made the most of it today."

On Sunday afternoon, Rodriguez doubled his season hit total, blooping a two-run single to right field in the second inning and scorching a double off the left-field wall with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Moore, who led off the inning with a walk after falling behind 0-2, scored from first base with the winning run.

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"It's an exciting moment," said Rodriguez, whose mother, Elba, and his grandmother were there at LeLacheur Park to share it with him.

The Spinners moved to a half-game behind the Tri-City ValleyCats in the New York-Penn League's Stedler Division. They are also a half-game out in the wild card race.

Rodriguez has felt good about his swing the past two weeks. But he had not played in exactly two weeks, since going 1-for-3 on Aug. 4 against Batavia.

"When you don't play too much, you have two options -- mope about it or do something about it," said Rodriguez, 22, a 36th-round draft pick in 2012 out of the University of North Carolina Charlotte. "You have to think positive and work hard, so when the opportunity comes, you can succeed in those situations."

A manager would like to write players like Rodriguez into the lineup more often, said Crabbe. But the Spinners also have three other catchers on their roster: Danny Bethea (34th round, 2013), David Sopilka (2010 international free agent) and Jake Romanski (14th round, 2013).

"It's really good to see (what Rodriguez did on Sunday)," said Crabbe. "Makes you feel good about putting him in the lineup."

Rodriguez was the story at the end. Coming into the game, the story was Daniel McGrath, Lowell's 19-year-old Australian left-hander who had retired 23 consecutive batters over his previous three appearances. McGrath was last week's New York-Penn League pitcher of the week.

His streak of consecutive batters retired reached 25 before Hudson Valley's Johnny Field crushed a homer to left with two outs in the first inning on Sunday. McGrath went four innings, throwing 67 pitches while allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out three. He departed with the score 3-3.

"It was kind of one of those days," said McGrath. "I battled through it. I did all right in the end. The scoreline wasn't too bad. I kept the team in it. I was just kind of leaving the ball up every pitch."

McGrath's mother, Dale, grew up on Cape Cod. She met McGrath's father, Hugh, while working in Australia. McGrath lived on the Cape from the ages of 4 to 6. After moving back to Australia, he annually visited the American side of his family.

"So I went to a few games in Boston when I was younger," said McGrath. "It's an awesome park."

McGrath played baseball, cricket and Australian rules football while growing up. He was an Australian baseball phenom, who at age 17 received a $400,000 signing bonus from the Red Sox on Feb. 7, 2012.

In the third inning on Sunday, Hudson Valley's Aussie shortstop Darryl George, a Melbourne Aces teammate of McGrath in the winter, blooped an RBI single to center off his friend for the Renegades' second run.

While McGrath's streak of perfection ended at 8.1 innings, right-handers Taylor Grover (2 ip) and Carlos Pinales (3 ip) combined for five perfect innings out of the Spinners' bullpen on Sunday.

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